Character Creation
!!!! IMPORTANT !!!! No new characters are being accepted right now while the admins do an overhaul of the system. The updated system will be out by July 1st. Check back then for the new character creation sheet. ---- Welcome to creating a character for Shadowrun at Galactic Aeon! The following steps will take you through how to make a character, take a copy of the character sheet and fill it out for your character. Whether you are new to Shadowrun or played the table top game for years please take the time to go through this page as it will take you step by step through how we make characters for the sim. We've simplified the character creation process as much as we can while trying to keep to the feel of shadowrun and maintain balance. Send your application in SL to Koji Starr, Talmerith Jael, Or Azlum Revnik. Since this character creation process is very new I am sure we are going to have to make some changes to it over time as we get feedback about it. The basic design of it is not going to change however, out of all the options we have looked at we decided on the point system and it's going to stay the point system, some people will like it, some people won't, that is the way of any system. For an overview of what types of chracters there are in shadowrun go read Character Types 'Character Creation Rules' In addition to the character creation rules make sure to read the general sim rules. Alts: You can only have one active character per SL account, though you can have as many alts as you have SL accounts. However do not abuse the use of alts, creating a bunch of characters and having them all give their money to your main account or having a RP group full of your own alts is not allowed. Character age and appearance: Characters must be at least 13 years old, characters under the age of 18 are forbidden from any sexual RP. Your avatars appearance needs to fit into the Shadowrun setting. While this offers a very broad variety of avatars choose from please note that anthropomorphic furry avatars don’t meet that requirement. Nekos are also not allowed. Characters of races other than human need to look appropriate to the shadowrun version of their race. No Canon Characters: There will be no characters in the sim that have appeared in any Shadowrun books or source material. Your character is also not allowed to be related to such canon characters. Character ability limits: There are a lot of enhancement, powers and skills that can be "stacked" with one another. A character might have the Really fast skill and then use magic or cyberware that increases speed. These do work with one another to make the character faster but there are limits. No character can become fast enough to catch or dodge bullets neo style its just not possible. Many enhancements and powers grant resistances to things but rarely is it complete immunity. Characters can do some exceptional things in the shadowrun world, but they all still have weaknesses, play your character reasonably. '10 point Character Creation' All characters are created on a point based system. They have 10 points to choose their race, starting money, skills and magic. One you have those chosen you can buy any equipment or enhancements using your money and figure out their Essence score. The 10 points alloted to you will not let you get everything you could want for your character, you will have to pick and choose. The purpose is to start all characters on a level playing field and from there they have to gain the skills and money they want through role play. There are no levels or XP involved in advancing your character once they have started, everything is earned through IC effort. Don't fret too much over not being able to get all the things you want for the character at creation, things can always be learned by your character later in RP. Some characters might not even need to use up all ten points, that's fine. If you use up 9 points and don't see anything else to use the last point for you can just leave it that way, playing the character is more important then getting hung up on points at the start. If you are familiar with Shadowrun and want to play something not listed here contact one of the admins about it. Certain rare things may be allowed on a case by case basis, do not ask to play any form of Dragon, Drake or AI, these are simply not allowed. *''Note: As a courtesy, please list the point/nuyen/essence cost associated with your purchases on your application. This will assist the GMs in validating your sheet and help to streamline the process. This may also help prevent common mistakes in arithmetic.'' 'Race:' Human - 0 points Ork - 0 points Elf - 1 point Dwarf - 1 point Troll - 2 point [[Nuyen|'Money (Nuyen):']] (you get only one of the following amounts) 5000 - 0 points 20000 - 1 points 90000 - 2 points 200000 - 3 points 400000 - 4 points 'Skills:' Click on each skill for a description. Picking one of these represents your character having ability beyond the average person. You don’t have to pick Computer Savy in order to be able to use a public terminal, but you would need it to be able to navigate the matrix in an efficient manner. Likewise anyone can pick up a sword, swing it around and try to hit people but the advanced Melee weapons skill would represent actual training in its use. Every character must pick a minimum of one skill Civilian Weapons (small handguns and knives etc.) - 1 point Advanced Melee Weapons (specialized melee weapons like swords) - 2 points Advanced Ranged Weapons (heavy projectile weapons like automatic rifles) - 2 points Demolitions - 2 points Martial Arts - 2 points Sneaky - 2 points Perceptive - 2 points Computer Savy - 1 point Decking - 4 points Medicine (first aid) - 1 point Medicine (Physician) - 4 points Athlete (running, climbing, jumping etc) - 2 point Fixing/Building (Pick something you know how to fix or build, decks, cybernetics, cars etc.) - 2 point/item known Researcher(Choose a field of expertise) - 4 points Economist (Increases monthly stipend of group) - 4 points Dealer - 4 points (having an external supply of items ie. weapons dealer) Stunt Driving (Assumed that everyone can drive the speed limit safely) - 3 point Fearless - 2 points Really Strong - 2 points Fortitude - 2 points Really Fast - 2 points Extra Language (Characters get up to two languages for free) - 1 point/language Aura Reading (must be magical, and capable of Astral Perception) - 2 points Enchanting (creating magical foci) - 2 points 'Magic': Of all the types of characters magic users have the most complex rules associated with them. If you want to play one you will have to do a lot of reading of the sim rules on how magic works and you’ll be expected to know and follow those rules. If you don’t want to deal with learning a bunch of rules a magical character is probably not a good choice for you. *Magic Any character with the potential for magic must use three points to be awakened. They then have to pick what type of awakened character they are (ie a Full Magician actually costs 6 points total). Note that if you want your character to have any magic potential at all they need to pick awakened at character creation, even if they aren't aware of or using their abilities yet. Awakened - 3 points Full Magician - 3 points Aspected Magician - 2 point Adept - 2 point All full Magicians, or aspected ones who can use sorcery need to pick 5 spells at character creation that they know, go through the Sorcery categories and pick 5 individual spells. Adepts pick out there abilities from the Adept powers list as per the rules listed there. 'Gear and Essence' Now that all of your points are used up time to go through and figure out how much equipment and cyberware you can buy and record your essence score. 'Augments:' All Cyberware and Bioware your character starts with is purchased using whatever starting money you chose. Click on the links for descriptions and prices. Record on your character sheet the Nuyen and Essence cost of any Cyberware your character gets. For the exact amount of magic that is lost if you have Cyber or Bioware see the Loss of Magic page. 'Essence:' Once you decide what Cyberware your character has you will need to record their Essence score. All characters automatically start with an Essence attribute of 10. Cyberware has an essence cost which is taken away from this when implanted in the body. Essence can never be allowed to drop to 0 or the character would die. 'Equipment:' All equipment your character starts with is purchased using whatever starting money you chose. Equipment has a list of things you can buy. Not every thing need to be bought, simple things like clothing or a cell phone are not important enough to make you pay for it, ask an admin about an item if your uncertain if it needs to be payed for or not. Record on your character sheet the Nuyen cost of any equipment you pick up. All equipment that a character gets after character creation need to be acquired through role play and payed for using the currency system. For example if you want your character to have a new gun your character needs to go find someone to ICly sell/give it to them. OOCly they aren't actually going to give you a gun in SL. A person doesn't need to be a gun builder in SL to play a gun dealer in RP. Any purchases your character makes you are expected to go find something to represent it yourself, ie go buy a gun from a vendor anywhere you want on SL as long as it looks appropriate. 'Character Sheet' Once you are done creating your character fill out a character sheet and send it to Talmerith Jael or Koji Starr. You will also need to decide if your character has a SIN or not, see the SIN page for details. Also when writing your character history keep the Shadowrun History in mind, and also see this world map http://thor.divnull.com/pub/srun/maps/world2062.pdf for how countries have changed